GPLv2 Qt disk usage analyzer for Linux, BSD/Unix-like systems and macOS: a directory tree coupled with an interactive colored treemap, plus configurable cleanup actions (move to trash, predefined and user-defined shell cleanups), package-manager views (per-package disk usage, unpackaged files in system directories), file-type, file-age and file-size histogram views, mounted-filesystem view, and a Perl cache-writer for headless remote scans. KDE-free successor to KDE3-era KDirStat, written by its original author Stefan Hundhammer (SUSE); project started November 2015, first stable 1.0 in May 2016, current 2.0 (Qt6 port) since January 2026.
C++ with Qt6 (Qt5 through the 1.x series; Qt6 since 2.0, January 2026); no KDE dependencies; Perl qdirstat-cache-writer helper for headless/remote scans
Stefan Hundhammer (SUSE Linux GmbH employee, Qt desktop veteran) has run it solo since 2015-11-28, much of it during SUSE Hack Weeks. Community contributes platform fixes and, since 2026, gettext translations managed in a separate qdirstat-lang project; macOS binaries are produced by Jesus Herrera Arroyo under his own repo. Original author of both KDirStat and QDirStat.
Free and open source; PayPal donation button on the README
Launched
first_release_at
Repo created
GitHub stars
2,648 (as of 2026-11-02)
First release
Last seen alive
Checks
Mechanical checks derived from the fields above. Each row is one fact; "not yet checked" means exactly that, not a failure. There is no composite score; read them together.
Track record
about 10 years
Source published
Yes
Release signing
Notarized
Security contact
None found
Reproducible builds
Not yet checked
Telemetry
None
Runs elevated
Only when needed
Auto-update channel
None
Recent activity
Last seen yesterday
Full source with git history on GitHub since 2015-11-28; upstream publishes source only, no binaries
macOS DMGs are built and notarized by Jesus Herrera Arroyo in the blessed community repo jesusha123/qdirstat-macos; Linux/BSD installs come as distribution packages signed by each distro's package manager (openSUSE packages come from the author's own OBS projects)
No in-app updater or network client; updates arrive via distro/Homebrew/GitHub releases. Remote/headless scanning is user-driven: qdirstat-cache-writer output is copied over ssh by the user, not pushed by the app
Runs as the invoking user with no privileged helper, setuid, or daemon; scanning restricted system directories means launching it as root (README discusses this plainly). The macOS build relies on TCC permissions / Full Disk Access instead
Cleanup actions are shell commands run with the invoking user's rights: 'Move to Trash' plus predefined and unlimited user-defined cleanups, whose output and errors the app surfaces
No SECURITY.md or dedicated security contact; public GitHub issue tracker and the author's gmx.de email in the README
README: 'Qt-based directory statistics: KDirStat without any KDE -- from the author of the original KDirStat.' QDirStat is a port of the KDE3 KDirStat codebase, not of K4DirStat.
Family relation rather than influence: the README corrects the record - 'WinDirStat is a Windows port of KDirStat... The Linux version was there first.'
Research notes
Oldest living lineage in the category: Hundhammer's KDirStat 0.86 for KDE 1, announced 2000-01-21, was the first tool coupling a directory tree with a proportional treemap; WinDirStat (2003) cloned it for Windows, not the other way around. QDirStat is the KDE-free Qt rewrite he started on 2015-11-28, now on Qt6 (2.0, January 2026).
Self-described 'mostly a one-man show' (his profile README) run as a recurring SUSE Hack Week project 'since I started it back in 2015' (DevHistory.md); steady cadence of stable releases 2016-2026. Community supplies ports/build fixes and, since 2026, program translations via a separate qdirstat-lang project (pt_PT first).
macOS support is community-built, upstream-blessed: since February 2024 Jesus Herrera Arroyo builds notarized DMGs in a dedicated repo (jesusha123/qdirstat-macos) with the author's explicit approval - 'I'll have to redirect any users having macOS-specific problems to your repo's issue tracker' - plus a Homebrew cask (~1.8k installs/365d). No native Windows version; the README points Windows users at WinDirStat or the Docker container.
Unusually wide distro coverage for a solo project: packaged across Linux/BSD per the repology badge (Gentoo since August 2016, a community PPA since May 2016, Debian/Fedora/Void and more, plus the author's own openSUSE OBS repos).
Distribution hygiene is actively policed by the author: when a third party packaged QDirStat as a stale 113 MB AppImage, he publicly dissected why he dislikes it (issue #168: outdated version, unlabeled, bundled libs of unknown freshness) rather than endorsing it.
Earliest author promotion found: self-bylined article on Linux.com (Linux Foundation community site), published the week of the first beta. The predecessor KDirStat's 2000 announcement predates the platforms this catalog tracks; no reddit promotion found.
Every hard disk, however large it may be, is filled up to capacity after some time. Then it's about time to find out where all that disk space has gone, and to reclaim some of it. — Problem statement
The original KDirStat was a KDE 3 application. Now, there is the brand-new QDirStat, based on the same code, but with most of it rewritten with newer technology based on the latest Qt 5. It no longer depends on KDE; rather, it's now desktop agnostic, running just as well under GNOME, Xfce and all thoser other X11-based Linux/BSD desktops. — Virtue